April 24, 2013

P&G Gillette Sustainability Challenge

Post by:Gilberto MillaresIMBA 2013

Some of Procter &Gamble’s sustainability goals for the future include completely eliminating the waste they currently generate, using only renewable energy in all their facilities, and having environmentally-friendly products and packages. As you might guess, such endeavors present an extremely difficult challenge for a global company, so they are constantly looking for ways to make marginal or disruptive changes in their operations that allow them to be closer to achieving these goals. One of these ways is to sponsor the P&G Gillette Sustainability Challenge, which brings together multi-disciplinary teams from different Boston University schools and challenges them to come up with ideas that might be applied in their operations.

On April 12, eight teams, consisting of undergrad and graduate students from the schools of Engineering, Public Policy, Management and Biomedical Engineering, among others, had the opportunity to showcase their findings to a group of managers from P&G Gillette, Veolia and NSTAR. We presented different ideas that would allow P&G to increase their renewable energy consumption at the South Boston Gillette site by making a business case for each proposed project.

The judging panel from P&G Gillette, Veolia, and NSTAR

While the format differed a bit from the standard case competition, the results were just as meaningful. Rather than diving into the project for 48 hours, we were given two weeks to find different approaches to help them achieve their goals. And even though it might sound like more than sufficient lead time, we had to fit several seminars into our busy schedules to learn about energy projects throughout the country and the world, research technologies that are being implemented in the industry, and find ways to link business and engineering aspects for each submitted idea—no easy task!

The winning team and judges pose for a photo

Finally, after all the teams had presented their ideas, we had a small reception as the judges were making the final decision. First place was awarded to a team consisting of MBA and IMBA students, as well as LEAP, Mechanical Engineering and Public Policies students, who will now have the opportunity to present their pitch to a group of Gillette’s top managers. However, I think the most rewarding aspect of the competition was working with a truly diverse group of people that mimics the diversity and complexities of the business world.

Gilberto Millares is an International MBA student with experience in strategy and operations consulting. In his spare time he loves watching indie movies and cooking “real” Mexican food.